


Mihi (Catullus 5)

by DaisyNinjaGirl



Series: Occasional Poetry [3]
Category: CATULLUS Gaius Valerius - Works
Genre: Gen, Poetry, Reframing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:08:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25105237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaisyNinjaGirl/pseuds/DaisyNinjaGirl
Summary: Give me a thousand kisses and then a hundred moreFor the night is long, and we shall not sleep;We shall not.
Relationships: Narrator & Children
Series: Occasional Poetry [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818289
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Mihi (Catullus 5)

**Author's Note:**

> For E & R

Give me a thousand kisses and then a hundred more  
For the night is long, and we shall not sleep;  
We shall not.

The days lose themselves, they twinkle, the setting sun a burst  
In the blue-bright sky - off, like a flash -  
So long as I have you.

We are alone together, my babies, and the stern  
Whispers of others can not speak to us. We do not hear them.

Give me a thousand kisses, a hundred, a million!  
We can not count them in the dazed dark nights,  
The overlooking stars, the glooming thunder;  
We will shake them into pieces, we  
Can not count them, we  
Fracture flat black sky.

You and I alone, full with milk, with tummy ache,  
With desperate kisses, with hugs, bad dreams,  
With cleaned sheets.

Give me a thousand kisses, my boy, my girl;  
And then a hundred in our eternal night.  
You and I alone, my loves.

my love

**Author's Note:**

> I feel if you can somehow work in a bilingual pun, then you should thrash it. "Mihi" is the Latin dative form of "I" ie "to me" or "for me" which Catullus abbreviates in his line about kisses: "da mi basia mille". Coincidentally, it's also a Te Reo word now moving into formal NZ English that means greetings, thanks, acknowledgement or grieving. I thought that was cool, so it gets to be the title.


End file.
